In Knights of the Green Cloth there is a guy named Richard "Dick" Sheridan Clarke who had a 50 year something poker career at a time when the life expectancy was 40 years. Doyle is close to 90 at a time when today's life expectancy is 78. Proportionally, near similar levels of longevity.

Meanwhile, Ivey just finished second in a 50k buy-in super high roller against those gto world class players. Timeless.

Okay I was specifically talking about cash.

I don't really know the tourney players as well.

“The guy who invented poker was smart, but the guy who invented chips was a genius.”

wtf Isi was/is around for over 10 years.

this is the correct answer

The everyman angle is massively over rated, especially back then as everyone with a penis already fancied themselves as good at poker naturally, because it had always been romanticized as a mans mans game, and ego is what makes the poker world run, especially before anyone knew anything about the game, which is how it was in ye olden days of early 2000s. They didn't need some random unknown to win to think "hey that could be, Im going to play poker now!", they just needed a bunch of hype and an accessible way to play poker. The holecard cam brought the hype in the form of increased TV coverage, and online brought the accessibility.

If moneymaker had busted out way earlier and Harrington had won, not a lot would have changed. Poker was on the way up, and with poke what it is, some random donk was going to win.

Moneymaker was probably the perfect random donk to win, because he was a likeable guy and his last name gave all the hack journalists an easy story (which definitely helped the hype), but the boom was inevitable even if pros dominated every ME

With the inclusion of post boom players in the debate, I’m surprised there is no mention of Galfond

Having been in the online business for a few years prior to Moneymaker's win, and watching the industry like a hawk back then, through the Raymer win the next year, I can tell you the boom was a direct result of the combination of three factors,

a. "everyman" winning the Main Event,

b. after having qualified online after buying into a satellite for $40

c. Moneymaker's last name was a big factor as well, just made for mainstream media to grab on to.

Yes, the online poker industry was already trending up from Spring 2001 about when UB, Party and Stars had launched, due to television coverage , but it literally took off thereafter.

OTB
Linus
Fish2013
Katya

Playing cash? Haven't heard of him playing cash recently or seen him in the high stakes hand histories.

+1 at least for online poker

Thats like saying the Mt. Rushmore of basketball shouldn't have Jordan in it because he doesn't play anymore. Isildur inspired a whole generation of online players. He's the godfather to the modern hsnl crushers of today. If we are talking online Rushmore then he should be front and center.

Okay drop Stefan then. I'm good with that.

Durrr
Isildur
OTB
Linus

That looks pretty damn good to me.

Dzmitry Urbanovich

Shout out on pokernews twitter

https://twitter.com/PokerNews/status...072995846?s=20

lol, that's like all those ESPN top lists where they **** the bed on purpose to stir up discussion

Not including Doyle Brunson on the poker Mount Rushmore is a mortal sin worthy of eternal damnation in the fiery pits of hell.

Every response on twitter, fb, and instagram is saying the same thing. Glad the poker community can agree on one thing at least.

LOL The Pokernews all-time Mt Rushmore is exactly the same as my "old school" Mt Rushmore.

Oh yeah. Your list was what inspired me to make that image and post it. Hope you noticed your shout out in the tweet.

Doyle tweeted: Chip, Moss, Ivey, and Sidel

Doyle, Ivey, Dwan, Chip

Doyle and Ivey are locks

Dwan is also close to a lock as the GOAT of both golden-age internet poker and TV poker

Chip gets in because cash game skills >> tourney accomplishments

Honorable mention: Stu Ungar, Hellmuth, Dnegs, Seidel, Moneymaker, Rick Salomon

The Salomon pick seems obscure.

I would give Gus Hanson an honourable mention.